It seems to be suicidal for political leaders these days going to media to vent grievances. If former BJD veteran and former Minister Prafulla Ghadai was ousted from the party for anti-Naveen Patnaik remarks in his interview to a newspaper, now former BJP vice-president Ashok Sahu had to pay a price for indulging in tweets.
In either case, the reason was cited to be indiscipline or anti-party activity. However, the difference in the two cases is that while Ghadai was dropped from the ruling BJD without having given any chance to keep his sides, Sahu was served a show-cause after being suspended.
Having set its eyes to grab power in the State in the next general elections in 2019, the State BJP seems to aping the BJD in terms of maintaining internal discipline and showing zero tolerance for dissent. While indiscipline should not be put up with at any cost, there should not be too much of a show of one-upmanship and arrogance by the chief to consider every reactionary trend as dissent and quell it with iron hands. Maybe, there goes a feeling to take a leaf from the ruling BJD which has so far remained invincible in the State under the unquestionable leadership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Now Patnaik’s allergy for dissent seems to have attracted his rival.
The Kandhamal bypoll whose results were out on October 15 amply explain how the national party that was an ally of the BJD was trying to follow the BJD models to win the elections. like Patnaik, who is very adept in poaching leaders of other parties, it fielded former BJD MP of Kandhamal Rudra Madhab Ray as its nominee for the bypoll. It never thought of if Ray, who had been discarded by the BJD, wielded the same clout in the constituency and if he could be a safe bet in relation to BJD’s Pratuysha Rajeswari Singh, who had a sympathy wave in her favour as her husband (a former MP) had died necessitating the bypoll.
On the contrary, the saffron party also did not pay much heed to the aspirants in its own house. This was a bone of contention for Sahu who was an aspirant for a ticket. Sahu began to express his disgust over being sidelined by tweeting off and on.
When the results were out with Ray having been defeated, it was Sahu whose reaction picked up steam. He questioned as to why the Modi wave was not showing any impact in Odisha either in the April general elections or in the Kandhamal bypoll. The former IPS officer questioned the very efficiency of the State leadership and urged for introspection over causes of the defeat.
Stung by the regular tweeting of Sahu and his criticism of the State unit head and a few frontline leaders, the BJP State president and his coterie again went offensive and tried to follow the strict discipline of BJD supremo Patnaik. Before taking action against Sahu, they could have settled the matter within the party forum by taking everybody into confidence. But instead of doing it, they chose the BJD style.
Fielding Ray did not prove to be sagacious as the party’s votes only increased by a few thousands despite all advantages enjoyed by the saffron party.
Suspending Sahu has not proved to be a well-thought- of action. For unlike Patnaik who does not have to explain to anybody on his action in the BJD, the State BJP head is not that free. His decision may be reviewed by the Central high command. Already, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram has said he was not consulted over suspension of Sahu.